`Motor-voter' Signup Adds 7,700 To Rolls

August 24, 1995

About 10 percent of Illinois residents who applied for driver's licenses also registered to vote last week, when the state began offering voter registration under a court mandate, Secretary of State George Ryan said Wednesday.

Ryan and other state officials had resisted complying with the national Voter Registration Act-the so-called "motor voter" law-which requires Ryan's office to ask all driver's license applicants whether they also want to register to vote in federal elections.